Tim Fernholz on why the conservative rush to judgment on international crises is a bad idea:
There’s a pattern developing in the United States’ recent foreign relations. Every time an international crisis of some magnitude comes along, mainstream Democrats led by President Barack Obama, and their allies among realist Republicans, initially offer careful statements, eschewing the bombastic rhetoric of the Bush administration. Most Republicans, meanwhile, are still guided by neoconservative principals and demand harsh early judgment.
This demand for instant moral clarity on matters of foreign policy isn’t a useful impulse and needs to be resisted if the new administration hopes to win the public debate over its new foreign policy.
